Elmo Tempel receives the Estonian National Science Award

28 February 2017. Elmo Tempel, a researcher in the Cosmology and Large scale structure group, received the Estonian National Science Award on Friday the 24th of February 2017. The honour, bestowed on the 99th anniversary of Estonian independence, was awarded to him directly by the Prime Minister of Estonia, Mr Jüri Ratas in a ceremony in the National Academy of Sciences in the capital Tallinn.

Dr. Tempel, who was recognised for his work in the exact sciences, joined nine other laureates across a wide variety of fields. He was awarded for his work on the study of cosmic filaments. These are elongated structures which stretch across the universe and channel the flow of galaxies.

Dr. Tempel’s seminal work includes understanding how these filaments affect the observable properties of galaxies. Among other important discoveries, his work has led to an understanding of how galaxies spin and how they grow.

The National Science Award is among the most prestigious Estonian honors and constitutes a 20,000EUR sum and a engraved medallion.

The key areas of research at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) are cosmic magnetic fields and extragalactic astrophysics. A considerable part of the institute's efforts aim at the development of research technology in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes, and e-science. The AIP is the successor of the Berlin Observatory founded in 1700 and of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam founded in 1874. The latter was the world's first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 1992.